For the legislative and political week July 13-17
Welcome to the July 16 issue of the NFIB California Main Street Minute from your small-business-advocacy team in Sacramento.
- Due to the coronavirus infecting some of its members and staff, the Legislature has rescheduled its return to July 27. It was to have reconvened July 13.
- Committee bill hearings were already jam-packed, including unusual Friday and Saturday hearing dates. This is especially true in the Senate where many more Assembly bills were sent for consideration. We have been told leadership is looking to redesign the committee calendar. The one thing that is certain is August 31. That is the constitutional deadline for the legislature to adjourn the 2019-2020 legislative session. After that date, Gov. Gavin Newsom could call a special session or several because special sessions have to be specific to a subject matter. Think: Budget; COVID-19.
- On July 9, Chris Dombrowski, acting director of the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, and Isabel Guzman, director of the Office of Small Business Advocate in the governor’s office, joined NFIB members on an exclusive conference call to apprise them of the latest state efforts to assist enterprises during the COVID-19 crisis. They informed members about two major announcements by the governor this past week: his declaration of July as “California for ALL Small Business Month,” and the launch of the statewide Shop Safe, Shop Local campaign to urge consumers to shop at small businesses across the Golden State, of which NFIB is a leading partner. A story about the call, including the one-hour audio, will be posted on the NFIB California webpage today or tomorrow.
- The Desert Sun, the daily newspaper for Palm Springs, quoted State Director John Kabateck on PPP loans last week, and the Southern California Record reported his opinion on NFIB’s latest Jobs Report.
- Speaking of PPP loans, at the end of its original June 30 deadline, there were 581,140 loans made to Californians for a total value of $68,225,253,665. Check out this 18-slide SBA pdf for other fun facts. Congress extended the deadline to August 8.
Nationally
- On July 10, NFIB released the results from its latest poll of the membership. “Small businesses have been using the PPP loan program to help keep their doors open and keep staff on payroll,” said Holly Wade, NFIB Director of Research & Policy Analysis. “However, many small businesses are telling us this won’t last forever and anticipate having to lay off employees once they’ve used their loan.” Click here to read other key findings.
- On July 14, NFIB issued its latest Small Business Economic Trends report.
- Were you able to catch yesterday’s (July 15) NFIB webinar, Your EIDL and PPP Loan Questions Answered – SBA’s Loan Experts Explain the Rules? The special guests were SBA representatives Kathy Cook and Melissa Loder, both experts in SBA loan programs. Don’t worry if you wanted to see it but couldn’t. NFIB has produced 17 webinars to date, all of which can be heard and seen again right here. Begun March 13 as a way to help NFIB members understand and navigate the federal loan program aimed at coronavirus financial relief, these Wednesday webinars have drawn as many as 10,000 small-business owners and others. Other webinars have discussed how businesses must adjust to the new employment picture. All of NFIB’s webinars, lobbying activities, news releases, polls, and surveys related to the COVID-19 pandemic can be found in one place: www.nfib.com/coronavirus.
NFIB California Main Street Minutes are published every Monday on the NFIB California webpage. Two additional updates are published the first and third Thursday of each month for inclusion in the bi-monthly newsletters to the membership. Next California Main Street Minute is July 20.
